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Within a week Flora and I were married, and a fortnight later we started for Quebec, accompanied by Christopher Burley. We reached England toward the close of the summer, and my case was so clear that in a comparatively short time I was in full possession of my father's birthright the title and estates of the Earl of Heathermere.
The thing seemed impossible at first, but when I learned from a paper at Fort York that the Earl of Heathermere and his two elder sons were dead, I was more than ever set on gaining the rich prize. "And a strange fate played the game into my hands later, as you shall see. You remember the cryptogram at old Fort Beaver, Carew.
"I have not the least idea how " "Let me see that ring, Denzil," she interrupted "the one you showed me once before." I took it from my pocket the seal ring that had belonged to my father and the moment he saw it Christopher Burley cried out: "The Heathermere crest!" "Yes, the same that was on the letters Captain Rudstone took from the trunk!" exclaimed Flora.
"That same night," resumed Captain Rudstone, "when I was on guard at the camp, I slipped away into the storm. I reached Port Beaver the next day, read the cryptogram, and found the papers; with them were the receipt for the trunk at Fort Garry and the key. I was now in possession of proofs which I believed would secure for me the title and estates of the Earl of Heathermere.
Where his hand had rumpled it was a brief paragraph stating that the Earl of Heathermere, of Heathermere Hall, in Surrey, was dead; that his two unmarried sons had died during the previous year one by an accident while hunting; and that the title was now extinct, and the estate in Chancery. I read it with momentary interest, and then it passed from my mind.
As the law clerk paused for a moment there flashed into my mind an incident that had happened long before at Fort York the sudden agitation exhibited by Captain Rudstone while reading a copy of the London Times, and the paragraph I had subsequently found relating to the Earl of Heathermere. It was all clear to me now. "There is but little more to tell," resumed Christopher Barley.
"Give these gentlemen a full explanation. It will come most fittingly from you." "The narrative is a very brief one," commenced Christopher Burley, turning to us. "It starts properly in the year 1787. At that time Hugh Cecil Maiden, third Earl of Heathermere, was a widower with three sons, by name Reginald, Bertie, and Osmund.
"I greet you as the Earl of Heathermere, of Heathermere Hall, in Surrey as the heir to an old and honored title, to a vast and rich estate!" Never had I experienced such excitement. The scene was beyond my wildest thoughts, though I confess that I had expected the captain to prove to be the heir to some property.
My lord, you are the rightful Earl of Heathermere!" What foolish words were these? I could only stare, dazed and speechless, at those around me at the mocking face of Captain Rudstone. And he had called me Earl of Heathermere! "It is true!" cried Flora, breaking the spell of silence. "I knew it." "It is madness!" shouted Christopher Burley, whose countenance had turned the color of Parchmont.
There is much to be done many legal matters to be attended to and it is important that the new Earl of Heathermere should lose no time in claiming his title and property." "Lucky fellow!" said Macdonald. "And in what a cool, matter-of-fact way he takes his good fortune!" "He is a man of the world that accounts for it," said I.
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